Seems like there’s always someone out there trying to poop on peoples’ parade.
Like Professor Ellis Cashmore, an authority on celebrity and media culture, from Staffordshire University.
There has been a huge rise in crystal meth usage in Europe and Prof Cashmore is seriously and actually blaming Breaking Bad, with a straight face and everything!
Apparently Germany has seen meth use rise 51%! And in Britain? Attempts to smuggle methamphetamine into the country have gone up 400%!!
Cashmore said:
“Although the show does not go out to glamorize the drug, its very inclusion promotes interest in that substance. The fact it is a central premise to almost the entire series would serve to boost this interest for people who perhaps had not encountered it before.
One of the central protagonists Jessie, played by Aaron Paul, is portrayed as a drug addict and he is now a Hollywood A-Lister. He is a bit of a sex symbol. The fact this character who we grow to love is taking crystal meth instantly makes people curious. We live in a hedonistic generation where people are seeking pleasure from various sources, and increasingly these are be found in the most illicit forms. Even if a TV show, like Breaking Bad, portrays drugs in a negative aspect and showing its most destructive side, it will still appeal to somebody. Showing the horrendous impact of crystal meth can have a boomerang effect and cause curiosity among some viewers who might think ‘that must be good’.
I’m not surprised following the success of Breaking Bad that we have news of a surge in the use of methamphetamine. The fact millions of people have watched the show and been entertained by it almost instantly glamorizes its subject matter, whether deliberate or not.”
We totally can see where he’s coming from but c’mon… that’s a stretch.
It’s just a TV show! Meth probably just happens to be blowing up at the same time as the show.
[ Related: Man Uses Wife’s Urine For Drug Test, Finds Out He’s Pregnant! ]
Heck, it was probably the rising news coverage of meth use that inspired the show in the first place! Not the other way around.
No one bad mouths Walt and Jesse! LOLz!
